How to cut down the height of an interior door without re-painting!

NEW RUG?

Have you ever brought home a gorgeous rug you found that was just the right size and just the right color only to find that you couldn’t open any door around it. Rug thickness – does anyone measure that when you are rug shopping? Really? Ok..never checked that before!! It is hard enough looking and then finding the perfect rug to begin with!

This perfect gold rug needed to match the gold in our office and complement my red oriental in the next adjacent room. I never actually went looking because I knew that it would be a frustrating task. Home dec is currently still in a grey period (geez it’s been more than 10 years already) and my desired gold rug might just have to wait. I just kept my eyes open every time we went out shopping.

Homegoods was where I spotted it! I was so excited I found it. Woohoo, GOLD is back! Hmmm… not certain …. But sure! Or, could the real reason that it was a great price be that no-one wants gold but me? ;). Regardless, what does it matter when it was love at first sight and perfect.

NEW RUG yields new HOME DIY project! Oops!

Once I got it home and into place it was PERFECT until we tried opening the office closet door. If I kept the one side closed, and the other door partially open halfway as it hit the rug, I could squeeze myself into the closet to get what I needed. This was going to get old after a while. Uh yeah, I wasn’t really looking for another home improvement project; we have plenty! Oops, sorry Ed!

I am learning the hub’s skills as I write this blog, but unfortunately I do not have them quite yet. I am not the woodworker or home improvement guru, he is! Sure, I use tools and even power tools for my re-upholstery projects, but I do not feel confident enough to take down the doors and trim them down myself. Maybe a few years of writing Ed’s tutorials I will feel more SPRITE, but right now, NO.

That being said, Over the years I have learned to decipher what to ask for and what to wait on. I knew Ed wouldn’t be able to get into that closet and he would be hating life every time he tried. Since he noticed the door wouldn’t open when the rug first came home, I never said a word, nor did I need to add it to the honey do list. 4 weeks of me squeezing through that closet door was such an irritation I wanted to scream, but I kept my mouth shut. It was definitely harder for him and I knew that. I would smile (maybe giggle) the many times I would hear him growling trying to get in there because it meant one step closer. Don’t get me wrong, I kept thinking “When is he going to say ‘ENOUGH’ already?” But my little requests (Don’t you say nagging!) may not come off the way I think they do. What would be worse is if ‘my little sweet requests’ become more annoying than the door itself. So…Sometimes I just wait. SHHH….Ed doesn’t always read my posts, so we can keep this our little secret.

So in the end, the day came! He was done fighting with the closet door, some curse words were thrown around and suddenly the doors were flying off the hinges! YAHOO!!! Wow, I surprised myself by keeping it zipped! (I did say 4 weeks?.. uh hem!). No arguments, no nagging (ok I said it)!!!! Not faster, just more pleasant. 😉 Ladies and gents…..DECIPHER ACCORDINGLY!

STEPS TO CUT DOWN INTERIOR DOORS!

Here is exactly what I am talking about. Unfortunately in the pic, I only have one door shown hitting the rug. I missed showing that there were 2 doors leaving a tiny little space in the middle to squeeze through. Check out the bullets below the pictures to see the steps that are involved to make a nice clean cut.

Laying the pencil on top of the rug, the door was marked at the correct spot where it will be trimmed to be able to open the door.

After taking the doors outside and putting them on sawhorses, the markings are extended across the bottom of the door.

No, you don’t have to Re-paint the doors after trimming them down BUT DON’T SKIP THESE STEPS!!!!

When I originally realized we had to shorten these interior doors, my first question was “UGH! Do I remember which paint we used on these doors and do I really have to re-paint the bottom because of this?” This rug was just snow-balling little diy projects that I didn’t really care for. LOL. But the answer is NO!!!!! You don’t have to re-paint doors! There are 2 tricks before cutting the doors down that allow you to dodge having to touch-up the bottom with paint.

TRICK 1

TRICK 1: to avoid paint touch-up: Score your line that is marked all the way across the bottom of the doors.

The line was scored on the top side of the doors with a box cutter following the edge of the metal ruler.

It is critical for the blade of the saw to cut right along the score mark with the thickness of the blade cutting on the scrap side of the score mark. The metal ruler was clamped to the door, a carefully measured distance from the score mark, and used as a guide for the saw. This is important to get that straight clean cut!!!

TRICK 2

TRICK 2: Use painters tape on the bottom of the circular saw.

Painters tape was taped to the bottom of the circular saw base to prevent leaving marks behind and scraping the paint. Less markings to have to touch up!!

The scored, marked line was cut with this taped saw using the metal ruler as a guide.

What you DON’T WANT!!!

Those 2 tricks above can prevent the extra work of filling, re-painting, and touching up the bottom. I have included a picture of what I am talking about when one takes a painted door and trims it down with a circular saw without including these little tricks.

This was left on a pocket door we had installed and trimmed down by contractors. Hmm….maybe I should have given them Ed’s tips. I wonder how well that would have gone over!

OUR DOORS ARE DONE

The doors are done and we can finally get into the closet normally again. WOOHOO!!! No more growling, no more tongue biting! And what is beautiful….NO PAINTING! These closet doors have a nice clean cut above the area rug. Halleluia! I hope you found these tips helpful to you.

Yes those are two great tips. But I believe you should always paint your entire door, both top and bottom! While you had them taped would have been the ideal time to paint the bottom. Color wouldn’t need to be exact, just close, it wouldn’t show!!!

That’s very true- we could have painted the top and bottom ends of the door but since it wouldn’t be seen we didn’t think it was totally necessary. What was nice was not having to touch-up the paint where the door was cut because we didn’t get any wood tear-out using these tricks.

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Hi there, I'm K. Rupp....an artsy type married to a DIY guy. K is for Kathleen and my husband is Ed. So......years ago when we got married, Kathleen + RUPP + Ed = KARUPPED! It has now evolved into this site! I'm so happy you are here! Read More…